The design here is amazing, with unique and interesting shapes in almost every room and the great lighting contrast between the orange exterior and blue interior. Half the time I was wondering how it was done without using custom content or having the level swallowed in a BSP hole. The first map is decent looking too, but the second map is where it really comes together.

The gameplay is simple with only pests and the amount of equipment provided, but I didn't mind as I didn't need too much of a distraction from saying "wow" in almost every room. The first two spires also had great layouts with the constantly overlapping main room of the first (along with impressive views) and the climb up the middle of the second. While it's a shame the puzzles didn't get in, and the ending is obviously rushed, a couple of the switches had some nice exploration to find them.

TheIronKnuckle wrote:great map. attention to detail was amazing. The architecture was awesome. Technical execution felt a bit iffy. very atmospheric

just realised this comes across as a bunch of robotic dry praise. I was sleepy at the time.

My real sentiments echo Mman's. The theme and atmosphere were unique and entirely loveable. I played the dig when i was 5 or something and never got very far, so i don't recognise the inspiration. But there's still a distinct charm in the atmosphere you've created in this level. Chizra was a good music choice. although i think silence and a hell of a lot of sound effects would have done a better job, but alas: time constraints!

[spoiler]I got a bit pissed off when i had to backtrack and press a button twice to continue and activate the light bridge. i'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to happen.[/spoiler]

The theme also reminded me vaguely of Halo CE. The whole "what are these massive buildings and who built them?" idea that i remember from back in 2003 playing halo came back while playing this and got me nostalgic.

Great map

edit: suggestion for skybox realism. download and inspect ctf-redheat. it's a tiny map which i love just for the skybox. It might help you eliminate the extremely unrealistic/ugly horizon when you're standing on top of the mountains. Just see how far you have to fly up on redheat before you notice the horizon distorting. i reckon it would help a lot with maintaining immersion at the point where it should be strongest. sure, redheat still has the problem, but it's nowhere near as noticeable as on most maps.

I'd like to thank all of you for the support and positive feedback! even the reviews, i never thought it'd be an 8 average

I completely didn't expect that people were going to like the style i was going for, the thing with doing such a different experiment is; you have no idea what the outcome will be, and i'm very glad that it didn't turn out into the disaster i thought it would be

Since you guys liked it so much, i feel i need to ask: would you like to see me updating this map somewhere in the future? possibly improving plenty of things and pretty much completing what i intended? I wasn't really thinking of ever finishing it, but by the comments you guys gave, i might have to reconsider

Turboman wrote:Since you guys liked it so much, i feel i need to ask: would you like to see me updating this map somewhere in the future? possibly improving plenty of things and pretty much completing what i intended? I wasn't really thinking of ever finishing it, but by the comments you guys gave, i might have to reconsider

Heck yeah, complete it! Definitely needs some polishing, and the story needs to be more active through your exploration of the ruins, but go on ahead and do whatever you want or had intended to do. I wonder: will there be more maps to this? It felt like that was the case, and I'd love to see what the cliffhanger stuff near the end was referring to, plus what the purpose of that final room you fall into was going to be.

Well i can tell alot more was intended originally what was shown was just the icing of the cake, next to an actual third pyramid, i had planned significant amount of underwater places, gigantic underground caverns, and some major climax area

just replayed. forget what i said about the horizon, you've done an excellent job of masking the skybox-level boundary. There are some little annoyances that make the horizon look unrealistic in places and I happened to be looking at one when I made up my mind about the skybox 99% of the time it's perfect.

Finally played this and I'm happy I hadn't read anything before playing.So now I know Turbo's entry won, and from what I have experienced up to now (with still the Oil Stone to play), the Triamid Ruins would get at least Silver from me, and the Oil Stone would really have to be good to beat it.

I sometimes had the feeling I was playing Unreal for the first time again (ok, it's not that good) but this has the tension, the visuals, the gameplay, the exploration and above all, the whole setting is somethng new.I'll quit now and quickly try to play the last remaining contest map. BUT since I know the end result now, I'ld say the winner truly deserved it soTurboman, Congrats!! I loved it, and will play again (this playthrough was a bit rushed).

I'm in a multiplayer server right now and I'm stuck in 'Arriving at the Triamid Ruins". The captain tells me to get scuba gear and a flashlight which I've already got, I cannot seem to progress because he still wants me to get the scuba gear and flashlight. I have a feeling it might be because they instantly respawn when I pick them up.